Re: Is is it still Aikido if you take away the Japanese clothes, etiquette and other things?

Quote:

Dave Gallagher wrote:

Quote from Christopher Li
"So...if Morihei Ueshiba trained outside in normal clothing, as he was known to quite often, it wouldn't have been Aikido?".

....So he went out and they rolled in the dirt. I don't see a problem with that, but what is normal clothing for O Sensei? When they were outside did they do away with dojo protocol and Japanese culture?

Well, they wore street clothing (or whatever was for them) - not keikogi, was my point. No special clothes.

They were outside the dojo, and often practiced without dojo protocol, but they were still Japanese, of course.

Are you saying that it is necessary to pretend to be Japanese in order to do Aikido?

I've been in plenty of training sessions in informal circumstances with direct students of Morihei Ueshiba, without keikogi, dojo protocol or even Japanese etiquette/culture - is it your opinion that what they were doing was not Aikido?

I've asked a number of direct students of Morihei Ueshiba whether they thought that someone ought to be required to bow in order to train - none of them thought so, all of them were surprised that it would even be considered an issue.

What is it about Japanese customs (and Japanese customs will actually vary from place to place in Japan, so they are hardly monolithic) that makes them essential to Aikido?

I get that a lot of people enjoy pretending - look how popular civil-war reenactment is, but is it really necessary to any of the core goals of Aikido?